Interview: Whos sorry now?

His safe-cracking Santa is another gem, but Billy Bob Thornton still cant believe hes famous. He surprises Garth Pearce with a lengthy and eloquent apology

Billy Bob Thornton says that when he got the call to play a drunken womaniser who works as Santa Claus in a department store, he really did think it was Christmas. He’s drunk enough drink and womanised enough women to know this man, from inside and out of the red suit. “Hell, yes,” he drawls, his brown eyes almost glazing over at recollections of such a prospect. “I didn’t have to think once, let alone twice. In fact, I didn ’t even have to think.” His role in the dark comedy Bad Santa arrives like a perfectly wrapped present, which then springs a succession of welcome surprises when opened.

But his irascible, acid-tongued, politically incorrect Santa had executives at Disney reaching for the sherry bottle. They might have commissioned the script and approved the casting, but Thornton in full cry, drinking, swearing and being utterly fed up with Christmas, before